I've been blogging about making any piece more literary. Mostly, I've focused on writing, but I've been thinking a lot about a recent movie I watched, "Godzilla Minus One." It was a hit not because of big Hollywood names or even English but because it spoke in a way that transcends language: storytelling of the heart. Such storytelling makes the audience care in a way a lot of recent big-budget releases don't because they fail to make the audience feel.
Good storytelling, whether it be with a movie, a book, or any other medium, makes the audience care. Good writing can open the mind, but often, step one in opening the mind is to open the heart. That's why so many articles start with personal stories about tragedy or loss. It's also why humorous articles tend to stick in the mind. If a storyteller can make the audience feel, the audience is more likely to listen/watch the first time and come back for more. This is what works about "Godzilla minus One."
"Godzilla Minus One" had a budget of about $15 million, far less than the average Hollywood blockbuster. It tells the redemption story of a kamikaze pilot who fled the military during WWII. When people learn of his past, they look horrified because he was supposed to give his life for his country. The audience watches his heartbreak and pain as he becomes a member of a found family who helps reassemble their country in the wake of the war, even as he ends up in situation after situation that brings him face to face with the titular monster. Each time and throughout the story, we feel the main character's pain and understand his motives. We are in his head. This can be the most emotional and inspiring kind of storytelling.
The monster doesn't remain just a thing on the screen causing problems. Like the best villains, it externalizes his internal drama. Godzilla clearly symbolizes grief, pain, death, and so much more. It is the fear and agony that he, alone, can face, which continues to grow and become more dangerous every time he fails to defeat it. We forget we're in a theater reading subtitles but get swept up in his story. So much of the story is told in visuals that the minor matter of having to read subtitles hardly interferes with the reader's experience. It's a sci-fi story, but it has the potential for such wide appeal because of its emotional depth. Its storytelling transcends language and genre-specific appeal.
A lot of big-budget stories that have been released recently lack this or any emotional impact. Their creators seem to think that as long as there are heroes doing things on the screen, people will pay. But if all one feels when one watches or reads a story is frustration and/or boredom rather than the emotions intended by the movie makers, it's hard to make people want to come back for more.
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Ideal storytelling elevates the material because of the emotional connection with the audience as happens in this story. Look at a piece of writing you've done recently. Can the reader feel the characters' pain? Are there specific emotional appeals to the main character? If not, what can you do to change that?
